User:Rabbidad
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[edit] Biography
In Beijing, China on July 14, 1949, a young Jewish couple, Dong Wing-Kwok and Dong Mei-Fan were given a son, Rabbi Douglas Arnold Dong, born Dong Tsang-Hse . Upon the birth of their son, Wing-Kwok, a banker for HSBC, and Mei-Fan decided that it was time to move to the United States in order for their son to practice their adopted religion with freedom. They had slowly been withdrawing funds for ten years in order to pay for their illegal emmigration to the United States. After two more years of years of these activities, they snuck out on a Hong Kong bound oil-rig. After reaching Hong Kong, Wing-Kwok obtained false documents and then the small family was able to come to the United States. After crossing the US they arrived in New York with little more than their suitcases and the money Wing-Kwok had filtered into account in the Carribean.
At a young age, Rabbi Dong began to show enourmous intellectual potential. From the age of three, he was able to speak in both Chinese and English; by four he was already reading. Based on the advice of his colleagues in J.P. Morgan, Wing submitted an application for his son to the prestigous Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Douglas was admitted and his class of 1967 had the school's first two Asian students. Douglas graduated at the top of his class, and was on his way to Harvard University. Upon his arrival at Harvard, he met a student named David M. Posner, who inspired him to further pursue the study of their religion. Mostly due to the influence of Posner, Dong decided to become a rabbi, majoring in religious studies. Posner and Dong went back to their hometown of New York and attended Stern University for their Masters and doctorate. Both Dong and Posner got jobs as assistants in New York City temples, Emanu-el and Sharaay Tefila, respectively. After serving as assistant for seven years under Richard M. Blumenthal, Rabbi Dong was promoted, becoming the first minority rabbi in all of New York City in 1996.
